Many cleansing or detergent compositions are known, as are various antiseptic disinfecting agents. Moreover, certain compositions comprising a cleanser/detergent and an antiseptic agent in combination are known. Two specific examples of such a composition comprising a cleanser/antiseptic agent which are readily commercially available are Lysol.RTM. (a trademark of Lehn & Fink Products, a Division of Sterling Drug) and PineSol.RTM. (a trademark of American Cyanamid Company), and these compositions are generally effective for most ordinary household cleansing/disinfecting purposes. However, neither or these compositions exhibits the degree of antiseptic activity which is required to properly sanitize and disinfect public restrooms where the presence of various bacteria and viruses is generally more of a problem, and can lead to public health concerns if such microbial growth is not kept under control.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,165 discloses a telephone cleaner-sanitizer composition which employs iodine as the bactericidal agent and sodium lauryl sulfate as the detergent in combination with dimethyl sulfone. Iso-propanol is disclosed as the solvent. However, such a cleaner-sanitizer composition is stated to be quick-drying, thus employing large amounts of iso-propanol to effect this purpose; moreover, iodine is present in relatively small amounts, i.e., substantially less than 1 wt per vol %. Thus, this low-iodine, quick-drying telephone cleaner-sanitizer compositions disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,165 would not be effective for industrial disinfecting and cleansing, such as in public restrooms, which require strong antimicrobial and scrubbing action.
Thus, while iodine is known to have antiseptic or sanitizing properties, a concentrated composition such as the present invention employing relatively large amounts of iodine in combination with an organic detergent in an alcohol-based solvent and also containing a buffer and a chelant, capable of superior antimicrobial activity, is believed to be novel.